The present disclosure relates generally to medical sensors and, more particularly, to sensors used for sensing physiological parameters of a patient.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Many types of medical sensors, such as optical sensors, are used to measure physiological characteristics of a patient. Typically, an optical sensor provides emitted light, which is then scattered through a portion of a tissue of a patient and detected. Various characteristics of a patient can be determined from analyzing such light, such as oxygen saturation, pulse rate, tissue bilirubin, and so forth.
Pulse oximetry is typically used to measure various blood flow characteristics including, but not limited to, the blood-oxygen saturation of hemoglobin in arterial blood, the volume of individual blood pulsations supplying the tissue, and the rate of blood pulsations corresponding to each heartbeat of a patient. Measurement of these characteristics has been accomplished by use of a non-invasive sensor, which scatters light through a portion of the tissue of the patient where blood perfuses the tissue, and photoelectrically senses the absorption of light in such tissue. The amount of light absorbed and/or scattered is then used to calculate the amount of blood constituent being measured.
The light transmitted through the tissue is selected to be of one or more wavelengths that are absorbed by the blood in an amount representative of the amount of the blood constituent present in the blood. The amount of transmitted light scattered through and/or absorbed by the tissue will vary in accordance with the changing amount of blood constituent in the tissue. For measuring blood oxygen level, such sensors have typically been provided with a light source that is adapted to generate light of at least two different wavelengths, in accordance with known techniques for measuring blood oxygen saturation.
Known non-invasive sensors include devices that use conventional light emitting diodes (LEDs) as light sources. However, such LEDs may have low emission efficiencies, which may result in high power consumption. Increased power consumption may lead to increased heat generation. In addition, the spatial profiles of such LEDs may be difficult to control, which may increase the complexity of sensors incorporating these LEDs.